by Michael Thompson
American prison populations are aging rapidly while studies have continued to show that prisoners have significantly lower life expectancies than those outside of prisons. In Illinois, some 23% of state prisoners are over the age of 50. That is a huge jump from just 4% …
by Michael Thompson
Michigan’s only women’s prison “is infested with mold,” according to U.S. District Judge Stephen J. Murphy III. Three women incarcerated at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, Hope Zentz, Paula Bailey, and Krystal Clark, are suing the Michigan Department of Corrections (DOC) over the conditions at …
by Michael Thompson
Kansas has a mechanism in place that allows it to fine the medical provider contracted to serve the Department of Corrections (DOC). From just January through September of 2025, Centurion, the DOC’s private medical contractor, was fined $1 million. In fact, the five months with …
by Michael Thompson
Mississippi has had recurring problems from the private healthcare providers they have hired for their prisons. The problems accumulating with VitalCore Health Strategies, their current provider, have pushed the state into hiring a law firm to monitor the contract.
Mississippi’s Department of Corrections (DOC) …
by Michael Thompson
In 2018, Colorado lawmakers unanimously passed a law designed to relieve overcrowded state prisons. It was set to trigger whenever the total vacancy rate for state prison beds drops below 2% for more than 30 days. That happened in August 2025, yet the law has …
by Michael Thompson
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released a new report describing a two-year investigation into the endemic culture of violence and abuse in Florida prisons, especially that of the Gulf Correctional Institution (“Gulf”) in the Panhandle region. While Gulf is likely the worst case, …
by Michael Thompson
Officials at the McPherson Unit in the Arkansas Department of Corrections turned a blind eye as Chaplain Kenneth DeWitt sexually abused several prisoners for years. The chaplain has since pled guilty to sexual assault in the third degree for 50 counts, for which he was …
by Michael Thompson
Prospective mental health patients struggle to find beds in psychiatric hospitals across the nation. Most mental health hospitals are short-staffed and turn away patients who battle to find treatment options. The hospitals have too few beds and the ones they have are increasingly consumed by …
by Michael Thompson
Norberto Torres spent three months confined in administrative segregation under harsh, filthy conditions because officials in his Illinois prison believed him to be engaged in gang activity. He sued, arguing that officials failed to provide him constitutional safeguards. In a ruling on October 17, 2025, …
by Michael Thompson
Statistics provided by the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC) show that 39 people died in state prisons in 2024. The annual death rate rose during the COVID-19 pandemic and has stayed high since. And while the DOC has been required since 2021 to report when …
